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Qulsum's POV.

I tiptoe down and walk round and round no where in sight. Until I hear a cough.

I check the window to the back yard Garden. There he was smoking near the fountain.

I open the door and walk behind him.
"Ah!"I shout and he flinches and shouts and his cigarette falls on the ground .I burst out laughing

I see him glare at me.
"What are you doing out here?"He asks in a low husky voice.
"I uh I came to uh.. Uh um water! To get water but I heard you so I saw you..."I say. I'm so not telling him I was looking for him. Hell to the no.

"Why do you smoke?"I ask casually.
"It burns away my problems"He says quietly.
"What problems?"I ask. And he smirks.
"There's one really big problem..."He says almost sounding genuine.
"What is it."
"It's a problem only you can fix."
"Okay..."
"You're the problem. You're a f*ckin piss off. A nosy f*ckin girl whose always f*cking around."He says squinting his eyes a bit as he looks up at the sky. I don't respond. A funny feeling in my pit. Why are his words hurting me? It's hard having only one person only care for me. I held the tears in. I'm not a baby. I'm not a baby. Get a hold of yourself Qulsum. Stay strong. Don't cry.

"Expecting an apology? That's too bad."He says looking at me.
I can't say anything. I won't.Taking physical pain is better. But being hurt emotionally was personal. It has become my biggest weakness now. I always pick myself up. I don't need these people to cheer me up. Allah will always be here with me and there's nothing more I need.

"Get some sleep we'll be leaving early tomorrow"He says and I turn to walk off.

Yaseen's POV

What difference does it make to her if I smoke? She's so damn nosy. This is why woman...I cannot create another bond. Not with her. Not with anyone other than my mother. Why does she not understand that I like my loneliness.

I may have been a little too harsh. Those innocent eyes....I told her to stay out but no. Her innocence was so strong it sometimes was hard for me to hurt her. It was as if I was hurting her from within. Another weak spot.

But it's her fault she comes close knowing that all I'm going to do is hurt her. So why doesn't she back off.

I headed up and opened the door and saw her innocent face laying down on the ground. How do I continue to hurt her? It's hard to keep her out of my way. Although Her presence made me angry But an innocent person is an innocent person.

What could be more worse than being threatened and almost pass out? Whats up with her "I've gone through worse?"

Qulsum's POV

I felt a kick on my back and then another this time a bit harder I squint my eyes and turn. Yaseen stood there.
"Go get ready we're leaving."He says.
I stand up and don't respond to the jackass and head to the bathroom.

-

"Okay here we go!"ma says as we all sit in the van.
I had to sit next to the loser in the back. I felt like just ripping his hair off his stupid skull. And his stubble just pluck it one by one. True pain. He deserves it.

"What time is it?"I ask yawning.
"6:00"Aunty Aisha says.

Half an hour passed and everyone was quiet the driver was the only one awake besides me. See this is my first road trip! Everything is so exciting.

"Ooo Horses!"I shout, Yes I'm talking to myself like a loser.
"Oh and there's the Shepard."I whisper.
Suddenly I feel a head on my shoulder and I turn to see Mr loser leaning on my shoulder. Is he drooling?

Time for revenge. I pull my purse out and pull out a water bottle and dump it all over him and move my shoulder and give him a push and his head hits the window.
"What the f*ck!"He shouts.
I giggle and cover my mouth.
He clenches his jaw looking furious.
"It slipped out of my hand..."I say quietly.
"Slipped! You little-" He grits his teeth angry.

Hehh. He can't do anything right now.

"Oh! Look mountains! Water fall! Water fall!"I shout grabbing his arms and quickly remove my hand. He looks at me his eye brows raised.

"Don't touch me"He says.
"Sorry but look!"I say pointing out the window.
"You've never seen a waterfall?"He asks rolling his eyes. What a show off.
"I did but not in real! Ooo you missed the horses and there were cows! And a big big farm!Do you have any idea how much land they have!
I shout spreading my arms to show the large farmhouse. Literally a big land filled and surrounded with all kinds of fruits and vegetables then a small house and barn near by. Looking at it from so far that the houses looked so small.

He lets out a small yawn. Once again he's way to prideful to actually listen.
"I did! I'm not lying! I actually did it was the size of-"
"I don't care. Obviously there's horses." He cuts me off not bothering to care.

Yaseen's POV

Her enthusiasm was crazy. She's like a little baby.
"Have you ever gone on a road trip!"She asks her eyes wide. She has no idea what kind of an impression she's putting on me.

Yes I have.
"No."I lie.
"Me too. It's my first time. First!"She says with a big grin across her face. Her smile was so real. So much passion. She made every little thing seem so amazing. I mentally smiled. How does she do it?

"Dial it down people are sleeping"I say and she nods.
"Ooh! a lama!"She shouts leaning on my lap to look at my side of the window.

"Wow! That was -"

"Get off!"I say pushing her off aggressively.

"I was just-"

"Sit properly."I say leaning in towards her.
She backs away looking at me looking nervous and uncomfortable. I could feel her breathing getting heavier. She continued to stare at me and back away as far as she could.

"Move"I say pulling her to me and quickly grabbing the seat belt.
"Keep your belt on. Understand?"I say and she nods.

An hour passed and I continued to hear her babbling and shouting in excitement. Can she get anymore annoying?
Everyone woke up a couple minutes later.
"I see it!"She shouts.
-

Qulsum's POV

After an hour or so we finally reached the amusement park. Wow it looks so much bigger in real. I've never really been off the ground except on swings. This is going to be fun. A whole new experience.

We pushed through the crowd bought our tickets and stepped on to the grounds of this beautiful ride. I am so excited. I can't explain.

"Look how much she's smiling right now. Isn't she cute." Adam's mom says pointing at me and they all look at me and my smile fades.

"Look she's blushing now." Adam says grinning as we walk. Well this is uncomfortable.

The four of us walk ahead while the two women behind us.

Yaseen didn't look the least bit excited. He was just looking around with his hands stuffed in his jeans pockets. he just had that expressionless face. Alien I tell you.

"Okay where to first?" Imran asks.

"let's go on a roller coaster!" Adam says.

"Wait! can we start off a little.. you know.. not too scary..." I ask quietly. You can't blame me. I've never been on a ride before.

They chuckle.

"Okay let's go on that then." Imran points to the swings. But not just any swings. They go in circles and they go up really high as in really really high.

"Um. I guess. " I say and we walk towards it. It can't be that bad. I mean you sit and enjoy, it's not like the roller coaster. And there were kids enjoying it.

My mom and Adam's mom stood outside the line talking while we got in the line.

"Have you ever been here?" Imran asks.

"No.."

"What about you tough guy" Imran asks and Yaseen turns to him, still hands in his pockets slouching as if there was nothing exciting about this.

"Of course. These rides are boring." He says.

"We have amusement parks too when you guys visit we'll take you." Imran says and I smile. He's so nice.

"That'd be cool!" I say.

"If we visit." Yaseen mumbles looking at the line up.

"You travel a lot anyway. You'll come." Adam says.

The lineup was pretty crowded , so many couples and girls and guys all talking loud and laughing. Well then..I felt slightly uncomfortable as I was the only one wearing a hijab. Well in the line anyway. the other girls obviously wore...other clothing while I was covered. Getting looks from people cause it's like 90 degrees and I'm not wearing shorter clothes.

This is an odd ,odd world I tell you.

"How much longer is this gonna take?" I ask. And three girls turn to me.

"It's obviously gonna take some time dumb ass" A girl from behind me says. My eyes widen and I ignore her comment. Patience.

I hear the girls laugh and I was getting slightly ticked. Calm calm. Relax. Be patient. Be patient.

"Give her a piece of your mind." Imran says.

"Or I will." Adam says and I put my hand out.

"I'm just gonna ignore it. " I say and they nod. I look at Yaseen whose just staring down at me. I swallow and look away. What now! I didn't even do anything. If everything I say and do annoys him so much why doesn't he just leave? Does he think he's all cool:

After 15 minutes of waiting it was finally our turn. Walking on the platform I didn't think about who I'd be sitting next to. Clearly he wasn't going to sit next to me. He was probably just gonna push me off and tell me to go find another place to sit.

I didn't plan on sitting next to him anyway.

I quickly plant myself down on an empty swing. Yaseen sat on the swing one 3 places away. A guy talked to Yaseen he nodded and got up and walked towards me. Oh no. No. No.No. He can't. he can go find his own seat.

He pulls the silver thing up and plants himself next to me.

"What's the matter sweetheart?Afraid to sit by me?" He asks whispers huskily with that hint of tease in his voice.

"n-no" I croak and a smirk crawls up to his lips. One word. Asshole.

The ride finally starts and slowly we begin to move in a circular motion. I grip the metal tight. Breathe. No. No. I can't I need to get off. I begin to breathe in and out trying to calm down.

"I wanna get off. " I say gripping the metal tightly. Sweat was coming down my spine.

"We're not there yet. You have to wait until we get to the top." He says. And I look up. oh my god.

We start to go higher and spin faster. The wind begins to brush past us. and the air was harder to breathe in as we were so high. It was all so frightening yet so beautiful. Looking down and everything seemed so much smaller.

"When will it be over! I wanna get off." I shout.

"You wanna get off do you?" He asks and begins to remove my hand from the metal.

"STOP!" I scream. Oh my god I think I'm gonna cry. While everyone is yelling I am scared. Younger kids are laughing having fun while I'm here wimping out.

"Come on. You wanna get off don't you." He says trying to raise his voice so I could hear him.

I begin screaming, panicking like no tomorrow.
Allahuakbar. Allahuakbar. Allahuakbar

Finally we hit the top and all the sudden we were falling. At that point I thought we were gonna  die. The ride hit the the bottom and began to slow down.

"Are you sure you're not scared to sit next to me?" He asks still that amusement in his voice.

I dry my eyes as they were wet from that fear. Holy.

We got off and headed down the stairs and went passed the gates by ma and Adam's mom.

"Sumi! did you have fun?"Ma asks and Yaseen smirks and ma notices and turns to him.

"What's so funny?" She asks and he stops.

"You should have seen her. She thought she was going to die.We weren't even half way and she wanted to get off." He says and my cheeks redden in embarrassment.

"Well it's her first time. So stop being so mean to her. Come here Sumi" She says wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

"Are you okay? " She asks and I nod.

"It was a little scary but it was nice."

"Okay ready to go on another?" Imran asks and we head to another one.

"Now for the roller coaster." Adam says and I freeze. No. Way.

Yaseen brushes past me and I slowly begin to walk. Don't be a baby. Little kids go on that thing.

"Yaseen. Sit next to her. Don't scare her." Ma says and once again he smirks.

"I don't need to. She gets scared on her own." He says and we get in line. He's so mean.He doesn't have to tell everyone. So inconsiderate.

"Hey just relax. don't panic or you'll get even more scared." Imran says and I nod.

"Okay thanks." I say and he nods.

After some more time it was our turn to get in to a box. There is nothing to worry about. Oh Allah please safeguard me. I'll be fine.

Yaseen kind of pushes me in and sits the little door thing and a couple minutes after,the helpers came to check every ones lock and gave the thumbs up and the roller coaster started to move.

Okay just relax. We're gonna be okay

We start to go up slowly the tracks making noise and everyone's chill.

"Are we gonna go down slowly or fast?" I ask nervously. I was pretty sure the first round should be slow to warm us up for the downhills.

"Slowly don't worry about a thing. This ones not scary."

"Oh good." I say relieved. Was he being sarcastic? Suddenly we stop.

Once again I begin to sweat.

"What's happening why are we stopping? " I ask.

Yaseen's POV

She looked so afraid, so helpless. It's the perfect time to mess with her.

She was breathing so heavily right now little does she know this ride really gonna make her scream.

Suddenly the roller coaster moves and we trail down fall and she begins to yell with everyone except hers was fear real fear . She grips my arm yelling and closing her eyes as if she  were to die.

We slow down again and go on little up and downs.

"You said it wouldn't be scary!" She shouts. Her eyes were wet she was so scared I could just tell. She was breathing so heavily as if she was going to die.

"It wasn't. Why? were you scared?" I ask smirking. She nods.

Once again we head up and she freaks and looks down.

"Hey! She says and I ignore her.

"hey!" she says tapping my arm.

"listen!" She shouts tugging on my shirt.

"What?"

"Come on let's just get off." She says. I just grin. Her face was all sweaty and red. She's so dumb.

"You want me to push you off?" I ask and her eyes widen.

"NO!" she shouts looking down.

"Then don't ask stupid questions." I say gritting my teeth.

"And don't touch me." I add.

Once again we stop and head down and she starts screaming loud and high pitched it hurt my ears.

"hey hey hey!" I say grabbing her arm.

"What're you doing! " I shout. But she can't hear with all the yelling going on.

-

She gets off not looking so good.

"Come on ." I say as she sits there breathing.

"Let's -" I pull her arms and she get up.

"Go." I finish.

She begins to walk and we head back to my mom.

"Sumi! Oh my gosh look at you!" My mom squeals.

"These rides are a lot scarier than I thought." She says panting heavily.

"Okay let's go on something less.. wanna go on that octopus then?" Imran asks.

"Yeah that looks more simple." She says and we head there. The line wasn't so big . After a couple minutes we got on.

This ride was simple it just spun in circles as well as your seat.

minutes later we got off one by one. Sumi was the last to get off and boy did she look bad.

She was barely on her feet.

"You okay?" The guy asks and she nods and I grab her arm.

"Now you look beautiful." I say and she doesn't respond.

"I don't feel so good" She says panting for air.

Qulsum's POV

"Oh dear. Yaseen take her to the washroom. They're by the little roller coasters." ma says and he nods.

"We'll meet you by the benches. " She says and he begins to drag me.

"If you couldn't go on the rides why didn't you just say so. You wouldn't have to go through all this." He says.

"you don't need to be so mean" I mumble.

"Language." He says.

-

I come out of the washroom after puking. Well this is fun.

We head in the grass area where benches were all set.

"Where are they?"I ask.

"Why don't you go find them and leave me in peace." he says scrolling down on his phone.I don't respond.

He then turns to me.

"Do you have a phone?"He asks randomly.

"no..."

"no wonder." whats that suppose to mean.

For a while I sat there while he sat on the bench fiddling with his phone. he turns to me and gestures to come. I hesitate and get up and stand next to him.

He pats the bench telling me to sit. I exhale heavily and sit.

"Here." He says holding his phone out. I look at the phone and then him. is he messing with me?

I slowly take it from him.

Yaseen's POV

I watch her smiling so happily as she puts some kid show on. Her laugh was so infectious. What was so funny anyway.  Do all women do this. As much as I hate to admit it I like her smiling. But at the same time I liked her being afraid and helpless. So she knew to stay away from me. It's like I like seeing her smiling and laughing but I need her to be upset.

I put my arm on the bench and lean in.Once again she starts to laugh. I can't help but smile a little.

She finally notices me leaning in  so close and turns to face me and her smile fades and she becomes red.

"Why're you looking at me? Eyes on the screen." I say shifting my eyes to the screen. I can see her looking at me for a couple seconds and she turns to the screen.

A couple more  minutes later we hear a picture being taken. we both look up from the screen and see all of them there with Imran's mom took a picture. She's a pic-aholic I guess.

"Sorry we came so late." She says as they all sit around the bench.

"Come see I took your guys's picture.Look how cute you guys look." Imran's mom says holding her camera out.

I take a look and turn to her. She didn't seem to care.

"I don't like pictures." She says. Typical act she always puts on.

"Is that why you don't carry a phone?" I ask and her eyes turn to me. My mom puts her hand on mine and gives me an upset look and nods side to side, telling me to stop. Why is that so offending anyway.

Qulsum's POV.

My eyes became wet. I tightened my teeth holding myself from breaking down in tears. Not here. Not in front of anyone. Not ever.  God why am I getting so emotional these days.

It may not be a big deal to other people but it is to me. I was offended. he made it personal. I am not like him. I don't have what he has. I have my own pain. I have my own past.I have my own emotions my own feelings.I have my own struggles and insecurities and so does he. But that doesn't mean you pick on someone's personal matter. Especially not in front of others.

I want to break his stupid phone and crack it into tiny pieces and throw it at him.

Luckily everyone already began to talk thanks to my mom she changed the topic immediately. I could see him looking at me. I'm not gonna let this jerk ruin my trip. In fact i'm gonna show him how much I love it.

After a while, we started to go on other rides. Luckily for me I managed to sit with random people. Instead of that ugly little dumb ass whom I call my